Terrorist groups worldwide associated with terrorist group ISIS routinely use crypto for fundraising, said blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs in a new report. The report revealed that multiple pro-ISIS groups in Tajikistan raised around $2 million in Tron-based USDT during 2022. The groups used a centralized exchange to cash out the funds, which allowed TRM to trace the money and notify the exchange. The exchange identified the user and reported him to the local authorities, leading to the arrest of senior ISIS fundraiser Shamil Hukumatov in Turkey.
Another pro-ISIS group raised over $517,000 using an account on an Indonesia-based exchange. The donations to the campaign often came in large amounts, around $10,000 each. ISIS affiliates in Pakistan raised a more modest amount of $40,000 over the past 12 months, pretending to help the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February 2023.
Al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production, a pro-ISIS media organization in Afghanistan, also used crypto for fundraising purposes. TRM identified wallets controlled by the group that received $10,000.
Crypto has been utilized by terrorists and insurgent groups around the world for fundraising purposes. In 2021, global crypto exchange Binance reportedly froze the accounts controlled by the militant wing of Hamas, which accumulated around $80,000 in a single month. Hamas abandoned bitcoin as a fundraising method in 2023 for the safety of its donors, the group announced in April.